A weekend with Google Home: Where's the magic?

"Sorry, I don't know how to help with that. But my team is helping me learn."

I've heard that phrase, or some variant of it, 47 times since I took Google Home out of the box. Google's answer to everything Home can't do right now is a reminder that this system is designed to constantly improve, and for techy nerds like me that's a comfort. My greatest personal hypocrisy is telling people not to buy gadgets that promise to get better with age and then turning around and doing it myself, and Google Home is no different.

I knew Home wasn't going to deliver the experience I wanted based on the experiences had with the demo Google gave at the Pixel launch event, but over the last 72 hours I've gained some much needed perspective on where Google Home is now and where it needs to be before I recommend it.

"Hey Google..."

Lets get this out of the way early: "OK Google" is not fun to say 50 times a day. It just isn't. Google snuck in "Hey Google" as an alternative on Home, which didn't work out of the box for me. When I tried toward the end of Day Two, it started working for me. "Hey Google" is a little better, but not as convenient as Alexa or Cortana. Being able to set your own hot word would be amazing, and something I've been saying about Google's voice services for years now. I don't think it's happening anytime soon, but it's nice to think about.

I would pay many additional dollars to Disney Marvel to license "Jarvis" as the wake word and audio response for Google Home.

Lets get this out of the way early: "OK Google" is not fun to say 50 times a day.

Having been an Amazon Echo user from the day I was able to purchase one — after waiting ages on a list that gave me Google Glass flashbacks — I've known for a long time that all Google really needed to do for me to want their alternative product was make Google's services available to me. Google Home delivers a minimum form of that, with Play Music, Podcasts, and Google Keep all available with my voice. These are all things I use, and not having access to them on Echo has always been a pain point. But as nice as having access to these apps are, the functionality is incredibly limited. I can't ask Home what podcasts I have available to listen to, Google Keep integration is currently only for the shopping list Home created for me, and accessing my playlists on Play Music is spotty at best.

Some of this matters less when you can use Google Home as a Cast target, or when you can use Home to control the other Google Cast targets in your house. When that works, which is most of the time, it's cool as hell. For video, it only really works with YouTube right now, which is less incredible. I rarely know the exact name of the video I'm going to watch on YouTube, and go hunting for random videos with even lower frequency. It's nice to ask for the latest from Minute Physics, but it's clear I'm going to appreciate the feature a lot more when Play Movies, Netflix, and more have adopted voice support.

Meet the Family

Google Home is exactly the same as Amazon Echo to my family, by which I mean they have no interest in using it because their stuff isn't available to them with the same ease my information is available to me. I'm the only one who can ask for a calendar recap. News briefs only come from my input. Traffic conditions are based on my drive routes. Multiple account support isn't easy, but it's the only way this speaker gets used by anyone other than me most of the time, and that's not great.

I look forward to seeing Google's Home team sprint on support.

My kids are big fans of being able to cast APHMAU to the television with their voices, and love being able to add toilet paper to my grocery list 45 times, but that's about it. My oldest wanted to know why she couldn't just say "OK Google, turn out my lights" and have Home recognize her voice and associate that voice with her name on the Hue bulbs in her room. When I finished laughing at what a terribly perfect First World Problem that was, it became clear voice distinction was the thing that was going to draw people in. That may never happen with this version of the hardware, but it's the next step I think.

There's also a fun sensitivity "issue" with Google Home right now. Any commercial for Google's products right now activates the hot word on the Home in my living room, which immediately results in a laughter from the family. It's a great demonstration of not really thinking about your existing audience while selling to the next person, and something that happens way less on Amazon Echo when Alexa is called out in commercials on TV shows. If Amazon can figure out how to keep my Echo from responding to a sleep deprived FBI agent in Mr. Robot, surely Google can do the same in their ads.

It'll probably improve quickly

Google needed massive human trials to figure out what to prioritize and how to implement new features, which is why Google Home was released in its current form. That's fine for early adopters, but Amazon's Echo in the early days that makes this something I'm unlikely to recommend to much of anyone for a while. It's not finished, and the gymnastics people are going through in order to shoehorn Home into their personal workflow already is kinda nuts. Some folks are buying one Google Home for each household member and setting up individual accounts on each, while others are considering a Google account for the household on a Family Plan so everyone has even access and no one can mess with personal accounts in the house. While kind of clever, it's also not something I'm even going to tell people to do just so they can kind of enjoy this speaker a little more.

Google Home is a big beta, and I'm tired of it.

I look forward to seeing Google's Home team sprint on support, because the things Home does right now it does fairly well. I can use more natural language when controlling my smart home tech, the speaker quality is nicer than Echo, and what Google services I have access to right now I mostly enjoy. The next step is the hard one, and I'm going to sit here and watch as this little speaker learns some new tricks before telling people to add one to their lives.

Reader comments

A weekend with Google Home: Where's the magic?

Always listening devices aren't new. They just have often been tucked into our pocket. Since mini Bluetooth speakers have increased in popularity, merging the two was simple. Add in search for + cast to, and you've got a useful ass device. Hey Google, play the beauty and the beast trailer from you tube on living room. It's playing on the big screen within 2 seconds. It really does save time.

Multiple users is coming very soon, but your wake up command must match with your voice model or you'll get generic Google functionality.

Certainly the G home needs to let the phone assistant override, super annoying that it can't text or whatever. But IFTTT is a borderline joke at this point because Google hasn't released the dev yet. You don't need IFTTT for NEST, it works with NEST natively.

At the end of the day though, you google it. You don't Bing it or something. Info is king, especially accurate info. Hey Alexa, order me some Chinese knock off that's not UL listed and might cause a fire, same day shipping please. I don't mind the lack of G home functionality, probably because I have the goog assist on my phone. I'm especially excited to set IFTTT on G home to welcome me home, your majesty.

I'm pretty much all google these days and I am DEFINITELY tired of having to say, "OK GOOGLE"...and "hey google" is NO better. I ABSOLUTELY want my OWN hot word... which would be "eaarth", "box" (Remember space cops?), or maybe my favorite human/animal or something I will enjoy and is unique. It is RIDICULOUS and stupid not to allow this. As "ADVERTISING" is actually SUCKS! It really ticks me off and I won't add this requirement to my home as it bugs me on my nexus enough already!!!

With that caveat, I'm sure this will unfold awesomely. Google loves doing the public beta thing and they have sat around while Alexa is gaining market share for too long already. It is very important and google is well aware they can't screw this up. It is a HUGE unfolding product line/platform. They are doing amazing things with AI and despite the trollish google haters which seem to love to comment, I'm confident things will advance quickly.

I'm surprised there isn't more mention of the fact that it's nigh impossible to play your own music through Google Play Music-- unless you have an unlimited subscription, you can't ask it to play a specific song, even if you uploaded it, and if you DO have the subscription, it still plays the track from Google's library, not yours. Want to play your kid's recital? Not happening.

And while it will play your playlists without the unlimited subscription, it appears to be augmenting them with their own tracks. So if you spent three hours perfecting your workout playlist, be prepared for some unsolicited edits.

You do get a 6-month free subscription to YouTube Red with the Home, and that does include Google Play Music Unlimited, so you can at least get part-way to calling your own tune, but given that the Echo supported this on Day 1, and given that getting access to the 30K songs I've added to Google Play Music was a major driver in this purchase, so far, it's a big fail.

Beyond that, I'm really not impressed so far.

It can't read my calendar-- the Echo not only can read it, but I can add to it.

I've had it sitting on my night table 3 feet away, and it often doesn't pick up my voice unless I turn my head and look at it-- the Echo 20 feet away around a corner doesn't have a problem hearing my normal speaking voice.

The volume control is too rigid- 1's too quiet for older stuff, 2's too loud for new music. Where's my 1.5? The Echo definitely allows for finer control of volume, although I'll asterisk this by saying that being 20 feet away probably gives it a little more wiggle room.

So far, the only thing that it does that I really like is that I can say "The Google Home is in this room," then say "these lights are also in this room," so instead of "Alexa, bedroom off," it's "Hey Google, lights off"-- this is way more user friendly when you move beyond "kitchen" and "bedroom" and have to start explaining the difference between "theater" and "bar".

Of course, since it doesn't work with my TP Link switches, and since my Hue lights are outside, this becomes useless, unless the Google Home becomes the portable outdoor music device.

The other thing that's cool is that I can create IFTTT recipies like "Set thermostat to 72 for 4 hours"-- with Alexa, you couldn't supply variables like that. But again, Alexa's got native integration with my Honeywell now, so while I can't set the duration, I can set the temperature without going through IFTTT. So this one's a wash.

Hhmm, contextually the Home has a better voice, as well as having a nicer one to listen to. It has a better database for questions and answer questions in context which the Echo can't. To get anything out of Play Music you need to have a subscription, at least till they tease out the finer points. I have not had much problems accessing most of my library. I haven't had previously problems with Home recognition my voice as it looks like many others haven't. Also It looks like few people have returned it from the reviews, most enjoyed no for what it is at the moment. It is as good if not better as a stand alone speaker than the Echo. Re - Volume 1's too quite, 2's too loud pfffftt!!

strange it announces in the pamphlet that it can cast photos to tv. but doesn't. shouldn't say it can do things it doesn't. sure it will soon. waiting for updates on this will be as exciting as we used to wait for them on nexuses. lol

I bought this as a cheap cast speaker and have been happy with it as such. I also like that I can control the hue lights with it. Anything else for me is frosting at this point. I understand the frustration with it, but I like the convenience of it as a cheap, decent casting speaker.

I have mine setup with IFTTT and Hue, harmony (via IFTT) and Nest. Also have it setup with the Chromecast. All of it seems to work great except setting specific scenes on the Hue Lights. Unlike the Echo, I have to go through IFTTT for scenes at the moment, which can take a few seconds to activate, which is a bit inconvenient when you arrive home at night and want instant lights. I find myself just turning the lights on with voice,,,then setting the scene.
Google Play Music being casted to the Chromecast is great, as is HARMONY integration. I can turn on the TV and soundbar with Google Home, and then cast to it.
Overall, it can be frustrating when the commands dont work about 10% of the time, or GH doesnt hear me. Echo is much better at hearing the start phrase, AND the Echo speaker is better for music. Hopefully it gets better, but im happy for $130

I'd admit having to say "OK Google" every time does get old. Definitely needs a 2-syllable name like "jarvis" or "duncan" or even "Buford".
I'd also like an option maybe that leaves it prompting by default to make it more conversational. Leaving it up to me to say "end" or something to signify that I'm done talking to you. The contextual bits are somewhat moot when you have to break up the flow with "ok google" everytime.

I'd rather be like:
Start: ok google
Home listening.....
Me: What is the weather.
Home: It is 79 and sunny
Home keeps listening...
Me: What about the next day
Home: You will need an umbrella
Home keeps listening...
Me: Remind me to grab my umbrella at 7am
Home: Done
Home keeps listening...
Me: Ok thanks!
Home stops listening.

I decided to pass on Google Home when I saw the keynote speech and they used all pre-recorded interactions. An hour later, I ordered the 2nd Gen Echo Dot and have been very happy. Lights, music, schedule, flash briefing, etc. work flawlessly and I haven't even gotten into IFTTT integration yet. I'll be ordering 2 more Dot's...one for the bedroom and one for the basement.

The multiple account handling is the key to this becoming more than just "another gadget my husband bought" from my wife's perspective. Casting to the chromecasts is quite cool and made for some great experiences over the weekend. but until it gets multiple account support (and I get my Lutron Caseta lights installed) it is just "kinda cool."

Had one for one day. The wife was not impressed. Only being able to access my information didn't help. Not being able to fulfill her requests (Play Sis's The Greatest... Here's a play list of the Greatest Songs), didn't help either.

I have a smartthings setup in the house, but there too it was problematic. Most things I have set up use motion sensors to automate lights and the A/C. While I could use my voice to turn down the lights in the living room to watch a movie, it couldn't change the mode. The result was that the motion sensors were still active and the lights came back on if someone flinched. I tried using IFTTT to bridge the gap in functionality, but that seemed clunky and slow. If I had my choice between walking into my bedroom and having the lights automatically turn on or walking into my bedroom to shout "Turn the master bedroom lights on" I'll take the former.

Coupled with the fact there's no way to integrate my Samsung Radiant speakers into this system, i myself was left lost as to what purpose the device served in my house. $49.99 Echo Dots seem a little better choice at this point. But I may hold out to see if Google does something similar soon enough.

Just a thought on the Radiant speakers, I added Cast Audio devices to my M7's and it works great. That's the one thing Echo can't really do in my house currently is play music to whichever device I choose. I have a wall mounted tablet that can control the speakers as well but doing it by voice is much nicer.

Thanks for the review. My Google Home was delivered on Friday and my weekend with it leaves me optimistic for what's to come. I have to say that, for my needs, its working as advertised so far. My home lighting is HUE so being able to control it by voice has been a revelation. My wife mentioned she wants to see the Dr. Strange movie (I immediately became suspicious that she thought its a romantic, medical drama) and I called up the trailer for her on the living room TV via Google Home and Chromecast. I also gave her a thorough review of Dr. Strange's origin story and how he fits in to the MCU. She is now well prepared for the film....probably won't be seeing it with me now though. As I was making coffee this morning, it was cool to hear my schedule, commute time, forecast and news headlines headlines from my favorite sources. Yeah, I can get most of that on my phone, but I liked having it all done at once and not piecemeal (plus, I set Google Home to call me Mr. Cooper......). I'm definitely hoping for Sonos integration soon.....

I'm only getting one for now, and it's staying in my bedroom/office... Would be neat to have a second one by the TV (and within ear shot of the kitchen) but I'll probably hold out until multiple account support is added or there's an even cheaper version.

I bought 5 total now and think it is head and shoulders above the Echo. The music cast to multiple devices is awesome. Plus it works nicely with my SmartThings house.
For those of us with IOT devices this is awesome! Hey Google ..turn on the Fireplace.

Mine isn't set up yet but casting to the four Chromecasts Audio I have and issuing commands to the SmartThings hub I'm setting up once I move are precisely why I want it most... So they have full blown functionality with the Chromecast Audios? I haven't seen a detailed description of how well this is working anywhere...

I'd like to be able to tell it to play X on a certain Chromecast or even all of them (and/or pre-set groups).

It actually does work exactly that way, which has been the killer feature for me over Echo. When I woke up yesterday I asked it to "play today's alternative on everything." (I have a Chromecast group called "everything"). Also works to play to specific devices. "Play rogue one trailer on Shield" or "play Mumford and sons on Kitchen Cast"

^THIS^ I was testing this weekend between playing to a single audio cast, or to cast devices and the Home and it works great. I also tested casting youtube to my shield and it worked as expected. This ability along with SmartThings integration makes me very happy!! I'll be very curious to see if Home gets used more than my Echos over the next couple of weeks.

Quick note on the SmartThings integration - It's working very well, just be careful when adding devices to a similarly named room. I added my kitchen smart devices which contain "Kitchen Light" to the room called Kitchen. When I would ask Home to turn on the kitchen light it would turn on all the lights in the kitchen. I created a custom room and moved all my lights into it, works perfectly now. I'm assuming things like this will be addressed but it's an easy fix...

hell yeah, I named my Google home,, the boss,, and my speakers, the flips, and my TV,, my android TV,, . and i named the three speakers,, the team,,,. so when I say play Pandora on the team they all play, it's awesome. of I say play on the boss or just the flip in the kitchen or just the TV it does. that also. connections are instant. and the voice recognition is instantly fast. missing some. features, but it's pretty slick right now. just get a couple chromecast audios, or smart things plug and it'll be extra. Sweet.

My Nexus 5 responds to the trigger every time someone says Ok Google on a demo clip played on the very same phone, somehow I don't expect they'll figure that out for Home/TV combo anytime soon... Not the biggest pain point tho.

Google doesn't have its 'spacial' recognition down just yet between devices. When it does, it could really expand the potential of Home. I like the idea of announcing who is calling and ask if I would like to Answer...etc. as an example.

Google continues to annoy me as well with their beta products. It may have worked with the Android OS but that was mainly because of the open sourced nature of Android and the massive support of developers, OEMs, and the need for a competitive OS. When Chromecast took on Roku it was an innovated product that quite uniquely changed the way I watch TV. The fact that Google is over a year late to the game with Google home, coming in with a watered down version of an Amazon Echo in beta, when Amazon offers APIs for Echo support for apps like YouTube and Chromecast. Google had nothing to offer here that Amazon doesn't already except to stifle innovation by not supporting an already incredible product. Maybe I'm missing something here? Maybe Google answer to the Echo is like it's answer was to the iPhone in 2008? Doubtful. This just send like Google pulling it's weight, using its services to sway users away from the Echo by locking Amazon out again.

Just been playing with mine for a few hours and I agree that there are a lot of gaps. But, for me, just having the ability to play music and podcasts on this little speaker is worth more than half the price of admission and the rest of the goodies get me most of the rest of the way.

One big miss: When I say "OK Google, navigate to work" my phone just says "Answering on another device" and the Home just says "Sorry, I can't do that yet". Same thing for any phone-only function. That's no bueno. If the Home *can't* do it and the phone *can*, then the phone *should*.

Don't expect too much for a first gen early days. The potential is so big this could do a million things and people would find a millions things wrong with it. In a year or should be the actual future.

Thanks to Best Buy's extended holiday return policy, Google has 'til January 15th to improve Google Home. If they can't figure out a way to have multiple accounts on the same device, back to Best Buy it goes. I would also like a way to add stuff to my calendar.

While I agree with your review, you also have to take a look at the "dollars & sense" of it all. Christmas is right around the corner and Amazon already has a big jump on this whole AI thing. Google needed to get something out there to compete with Amazon. Yes, it's half-baked - for now. But I think we will see major improvements over the next few months. And if you're that impatient, just take a look at what you get now compared to Alexa.... A better search engine behind all of the questions you & your family can think of. Good integration with Chromecast & Nest. Modest integration with other Google services. Limited integration with other IFTT hardware. (I was able to at least tell Google Home to turn on my lights, dim them and make them brighter, as well as turn the TV on and off. Not too shabby for a first draft!)

Yep I agree that Home not quite ready for mainstream... Then again neither was the Echo when it was first sold... But the big difference with the Echo is they sold them to prime members I initially for $100 which made it easier for early adopters to jump on board.

Regardless I think Home will be a very competitive product within the next year, once us early adopters get the bugs worked out lol.

If you say "Alexa, play top pop prime music station" does that work? We use it a lot to listen to music. I pay $25 to Amazon each year so all of my MP3s are available on the Echo. I'll probably stop paying that if we use the Google Home more frequently.

I argue that Google has a larger jump with Google Now. I think they are holding back some features because no one wants anyone to walk into a room and ask Google to read your texts or emails to them. I think this is trickier to handle, but could easily be done within Home settings, but it needs to be super easy. Once they get that figured out, it's a done deal. Amazon's advantage will be with ordering things. But I think Google will roll out more features at breakneck speed just to surpass Amazon.

Big question is where is Apple in all this? They want to be part of your home and life, yet have no mention it rumors of any sort of home based AI speaker. To be honest, I feel the big push for the most immersive AI experience is when Google gets real competition from Apple, not Amazon.

Thanks for an honest review. I bought two over the weekend and I can see that it's convenience lies for my smallish kids who can say a song and play it back. But there really is no other compelling use case for a family to buy into this unfinished product which at the end of the day fails to enrich or uncomplicate aspects of my family's life in any tangible manner. I'm going to wait for them to appear in Costco so that I can return them if Google fails to deliver in a few months on them while I will be returning the current ones I have.

Agreed. It's not perfect, none are. But it's a great extension of the phone. Price is Right for two, one upstairs and one down. I think in a few months it'll really be ready for prime time and probably only $99 bucks. It's kinda neat to see the real birth of this sort of computational interface, (no disrespect to Amazon, they deserve equal credit). But, this has the potential to be much less limited than Alexa. Plus it is almost invisible.

Side note, I think having Google Assistant in so many different places is what AI is all about. Your home is now a smart home. The fact that this and your phones are all connected, and you can get GA results from multiple places is fantastic. Google has got a hit on their hands.